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Afghanistan’s national security forces formally took over responsibility for protecting their nation Thursday, days after the U.S.-led foreign combat mission came to a close. In a speech at the presidential palace, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani congratulated the 350,000 members of the security forces, which include both the military and various police departments, for completing a two-year transition process and taking command of their own destiny. “In the past 13 years, due to the problems in the region and the world, [our] security was a joint responsibility,” said Ghani, who previously headed a commission that guided the transition. “Now it belongs solely to...

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Afghanistan’s national security forces formally took over responsibility for protecting their nation Thursday, days after the U.S.-led foreign combat mission came to a close.
In a speech at the presidential palace, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani...

Year after year, the acts of Islamic militants grow more terrifying. Witness the 2012 point-blank shooting of Pakistani schoolgirl Malala Yousafzai and the random slayings a year later of 60-plus shoppers at an upscale mall in Kenya.
The year 2014 was no...

When quarry miners in northern Kenya packed up their few belongings and fled last month after a terrorist attack, they left behind their jobs and back pay. They returned to their families in this central Kenya city with stories of survival and horror, but...

To the editor: For Max Boot to compare the ceremony to "end" the war in Afghanistan to Franklin Roosevelt declaring World War II over after the liberation of France in 1944 is a pathetic deception. ("Rebrand it however you want, but...

In a vast windowless room, several dozen intelligence analysts worked under the glow of more than 100 computer screens, quietly studying video streaming from U.S. drones and spy planes hunting for Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria.
One team...

Five Afghan civilians were killed in attacks across the country Monday, including a Taliban suicide bombing of a European Union vehicle that created a massive blast heard across Kabul.
The bombing along the road leading from the capital to the eastern...

If the trend holds, there soon will be a shelf of books explaining why the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan was a misadventure or worse.
Into that crowded field comes Graeme Smith's "The Dogs Are Eating Them Now: Our War in Afghanistan." But even...

Five more members of a vigilante "self-defense" group were killed during the weekend in a spiral of violence sweeping parts of Mexico's troubled Michoacan state, showcased by the government in the last year as a security success story.
At least...

Syrian rebels have been forced to agree to a 10-day cease-fire in a neighborhood within the central city of Homs that has become their last bastion there after two years of siege.
The rebels accepted the truce with forces loyal to President Bashar...

Taliban insurgents claimed responsibility for a blast Tuesday that killed at least one civilian and injured three others in Kabul.
The explosion occurred as a civilian vehicle drove over an improvised explosive planted along the road.
In a statement,...

A missile struck a passenger bus near a town in eastern Ukraine on Tuesday, leaving 11 civilians dead and 17 wounded, officials said.
It was not clear who was responsible for the deadly attack near the town of Volnovakha. Both Ukrainian law enforcement...

Nigeria’s military has disputed reports that as many as 2,000 people were killed in a recent assault by militants on a town in the country's northeast, putting the dead at 150, including many of the attackers.
The military, under fire for losing large...

The investigation into last week's terror attacks in and around Paris has unearthed hints of foreign militant involvement in planning, financing and arming the French-born gunmen who killed 17 people in the deadliest attack on the country in decades.
...

France's lower house of parliament on Tuesday approved extending airstrikes against Islamic State in Iraq, just short of one week after the beginning of a string of terrorist attacks in the country that left 17 people dead.
One of the perpetrators of the...

For the first time in the months-long air campaign against Islamic State militants, American commanders have confirmed that they are investigating the possibility that civilians have been killed in U.S. attacks.
Until recently, Pentagon officials had...

The Syrian Al Qaeda-linked rebel group Al Nusra Front claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing at a cafe in the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli on Saturday that left nine dead and more than three dozen injured, according to the National News Agency,...

After two hours of searching in vain through the city hospital for his cousin, Mohammad knew he had to face the inevitable, so he walked into the morgue.
There he immediately came face-to-face with the corpses of two gunmen who had incited a firefight in...

Syrian rebels detonated a large bomb in a tunnel beneath the Old City of Aleppo, killing and wounding numerous soldiers, according to residents and opposition activists.
Residents described a huge blast that reverberated across the city after the...

A suicide car bombing Thursday morning killed one police officer and injured three others in east Kabul in the latest deadly attack in the Afghan capital.
Taliban insurgents claimed responsibility for the attack in the Tangi Tarakhil area, just outside...

Kurdish forces backed by U.S.-led airstrikes have gained ground against Islamic State militants in northern Iraq, potentially clearing an escape route for persecuted minorities remaining on and near Mt. Sinjar.
The offensive, begun this week, paired...